New Telecom Act will be notified in 180 days; BSNL 4G rollout to b monitored daily: Scindia

NEW DELHI: The government will notify the rules of the new Telecom Act in the next 180 days, said Telecommunications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindhia while launching the theme of India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024.

The Union Minister said, “It is important for us to have a firewall in place, to protect our country, to protect our citizens, to protect our business and we in the government are committed to that. We have notified the new Indian Telecom Act, the best pages of a 130-year-old Act, has been consigned to the flames of history and a new robust, modern Act has been notified late last month. I commit to you that within 180 days, which is our deadline, we will have each and every rule notified so that all of you can walk down that path with complete confidence that the government stands by your side”.

Aimed at amending and consolidating the law relating to the development, expansion and operation of telecommunication services and telecommunication networks, the central government last year passed the Telecommunications Act, which became an Act after it was passed by Parliament.

After an official notification last month, some provisions of the Act have become law. This includes, that the government can take control of the telecom services of both public and private operators on grounds of security, public order, or prevention of offences.

#WATCH | On the launch of India Mobile Congress 2024, Union Telecommunications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia says, “… There are two aspects to developing 5G. One is to be able to give a larger pipe with greater speed and less latency, and the second is to take the industry… pic.twitter.com/IrLk8FQubm

— ANI (@ANI) July 18, 2024

The minister further added that the fastest 5G rollout in the country has now been accompanied by a commitment towards 6G. “Taking the 6G technology forward for which we are in the process of getting almost 127 global patterns, along with setting up of 100 5G case labs”.

The minister further said that another area of achievement has been the production of telecom equipment. “The production of telecom has been a huge success, with close to Rs 3400 crore worth of investment, Rs 50,000 crore worth of sales and a Rs 10.5 thousand crores worth of exports and creation of almost 17, 800 new jobs across India”, he added.

“It is also contributing to the idea of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Today, the negative trade balance of telecom equipment has been narrowed down to Rs 4,000 crore from 2014’s, Rs 88,000 crore”, he said.

On, launching 4G services by BSNL, the minister, while talking to the media after the event, said that the Department of Telecom is making a performance management unit (PMU), which will set up a daily target for the launch of 4G services by BSNL.

“All I can commit to you is, along with Tejas, BSNL, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) and C-DOT (Centre For Development Of Telematics)…we are forming a PMU (project management unit) and that PMU will not set monthly targets, not weekly targets, I have mandated to set daily targets, and those daily targets will be monitored ourselves, by Secretary and myself. So, I can commit you at the earliest”, Scindia, said.

State-owned BSNL is developing its own 4G stake, he said, and added that it was easy for the state-owned telco to pick up someone else’s technologies, but it chose the harder route. “As the Prime Minister says, we not only become the supplier of services, but also the supplier of the product, so BSNL chose the harder route of developing its own 4G stake”, the Minister said.

Emphasizing on the changes happening in the country’s telecom sector, he said, “The sector has seen the delta changes as far as the development and adoption of 4G to 6G is concerned.”

Replying to the question on Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) depositing Rs 92 crore to clear bond of interest, he stated that we have said that the operations of MTNL will be transferred to BSNL and the monetisation of assets will take place to pay off the liabilities. He assured there will be no default as the government will back it. (ANI)